Entries Tagged 'Rugby' ↓

Yawn.

Wake me when the quarter final starts.

The New Zealand Rugby Union and Adidas marketing teams, after a long lunch decided that producing an All Blacks compilation album was a fantastic idea - hence we now have the All Blacks Album - just in time for the rugby world cup.

Surprisingly it actually seems to have some decent music on it - Bic Runga, Fly My Pretties and The Black Seeds feature among others.

However, sources in the New Zealand Rugby Union confirm this is just the beginning. In the coming months we can expect the following All Blacks products.

• All Blacks cologne - head down to the pub and you’ll be sure to pull once you slap on a bit All Blacks cologne.
• All Blacks iPod - As we speak the limited edition All Blacks iPod is being produced by Apple. Oh and it sports a touch screen as well.
• All Blacks beer - Apparently it’s just Rheineck in a black can, but it’s projected to sell by the truck load.

If you just can’t stand the wait for all this great new gear, you can get the All Blacks album at it’s official website

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and after rugby each world cup, New Zealand has looked back and found the reasons why the All Blacks lost. In 1991 we were too old, in 1999 we had Christian Cullen out of place at centre and a leader (Taine Randall) that did not have the respect of all his team mates.

Most recently, in 2003 we lost because we had no adequate replacement for Tana Umaga and were over confident to boot.

Of course none of these were mentioned as major concerns before we lost.

Well, what if we lose the 2007 rugby world cup?

When we look back at this tournament, what will the media and the arm chair critics decide was our downfall?

I was thinking about this the other day - if we lose, what would be the reasons why. The answer and topic of this post is below.

Byron Kelleher
Poor old Byron Kelleher has been in two rugby world cup semi finals, and emerged a loser both times. After being in the All Blacks for 10 years I’d argue he’s only now the number one half back. Remember the ‘four more years’ sledge? That was George Gregan, giving it to Byron in no uncertain terms.

Well the four years is up now, but it’s time to get someone who won’t have the lingering taste of two semi final defeats to contend with. Mentally, Byron Kelleher has more baggage than Auckland Airport - and that’s where we should have left him.

Our midfield
One of the downsides of rotation is that we don’t have a proven and settled combination in our midfield. When the All Blacks lost to Australia in Melbourne this year Stirling Morlock alluded to the fact that the Wallabies back line is far more stable that ours.

Mortlock sees the opposing midfield, where McAlister is paired with Toeava for just the second consecutive week, as evidence of how the All Blacks backs are underdone.
“No doubt a fair impact on our team is the fact we’ve had pretty solid combinations throughout the Tri-Nations,” Mortlock said.

In the same article Keven Mealamu (on stable selection) says

“You can certainly see the benefits, especially in the toughest times of the game, later in the game. They seem to bind in really well,”

So, who will make up our midfield in a world cup semi final? It will come down to Luke Mcallister, Conrad Smith, Mils Muliana, Isaia Toeava and Aaron Mauger. That’s a total of 5 players, and 10 possible midfield pairings. Can you remember which combinations played in the last Tri Nations? I can’t, cos they keep on changing.

All are good players, but none of them is in the same league as Stirling Mortlock. If the number one pairing has not had enough opportunity to ‘gel’ then Mortlock or someone else will expose them.

Crap European Teams
Only two games of significance will be played at the rugby world cup - the semi final and the final (assuming we get there). So leading into the absolute two biggest games of the last 4 years our preparation involves playing Romania and Portugal and Italy. And don’t think that a quarter final will provide us a tough encounter because it won’t. We’ll steam roll the opposition in that game as well.

Sure, we’ll break some records, but what would have been ideal is if we were in the ‘Pool of Death’ (of course all world cups have em) and actually played some tough games.

The Lineouts
Everyone knows that in the post Sean Fitzpatrick era our lineout has been just like David Bain’s prosecuting officers - unstable and unreliable and totally crooked. Nuff said really - our line out sucks and you don’t need me write an essay about this.

So there you have it - the reasons why we will lose this world cup. Agreed?

(This is funny)

Following complaints to the IRB about the All Blacks being allowed to motivate themselves by performing the ‘Haka’ before their games, other nations were asked to suggest pre-match rituals of their own.

The IRB Rugby World Cup 2007 Organizing Committee has now agreed, and has since released an official press release concerning the following pre-match displays by other teams at the rugby world cup.

It includes mandates such as:

The Australians will have a BBQ on their side of the field and invite the opposition over before the game. The food and alcohol will be in abundance and by the start of the game no-one will remember what they came to the stadium for. After some streaking, the singing of dirty songs and the occasional chunder everyone will go home thoroughly convinced it was a bloody good night.

Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own “Las In-Goals-Areas” and have to be forcibly removed by the match stewards.

Download the full IRB press release on pre match rituals here (PDF) (right click and download) - guaranteed to put a smile on ya dial :)

It’s funny how history repeats itself. I read this week how former Wallaby hooker Phil Kearns doubts the All Blacks can win the world cup as they peaked about 18 months ago. He is quoted as saying

I think they’re starting to worry. They’re asking themselves some questions and I think they seriously could get beaten.

Rod Macqueen is quoted in the article as saying

The greatest competitive edge Australia has got is that they have a very strong mind over the New Zealanders… they’re not scared of them and they’ve shown that in the games they’ve played.

In another article John Eales says the All Blacks won’t make the final.

This of course is typical Aussie talk at it’s best. They love playing mind games with the All Blacks, and love to play on the fact we’ve lost more world cups than we care to remember.

But when I read these articles I had an immediate sense of deja vu. That’s cos we heard the same comments in the build up to the 2003 world cup, when 4 years ago Nick Farr-Jones and Alan Jones both said New Zealand would not win. Again they played on our poor record - Farr-Jones claimed (correctly) we would crumble under pressure.

Alan Jones chimed in with this line

I don’t believe New Zealand are mentally ready to win this World Cup

Sound familiar?

Yep, every four years we our mates across the tasman start singing the same old tune, and unlike the great Split Enz song, when it comes to Aussie mind games and rugby world cups, history very much repeats.

Only one way to change that :)

Ok, so you’ve got outlook covered, you’ve got the world cup excel spreadsheet sorted.

Now (for my New Zealand readers) you can get text alerts. It’s easy enough.

Text the code of your team to 3598, and you get a text message to your mobile phone 30 minutes before the kick off on TV3. That’s enought time to get up and dressed and make cheese on toast.

Kinda handy for someone like me who is probably tucked up in bed when most games start.

It’s not too expensive either. The first text costs 20c, every text after cost 50c per text (received or sent). Text STOP to 3598 to cancel the alerts.

Go to the TV3 website to get the code for your team.

OK, earlier I mentioned that you could get the rugby world cup schedule into your outlook.

There is also plenty of spreadsheets around, but I found a great one, that not only has all the fixtures but allows you to enter the scores of each rugby world cup game and then view the likely quarter and semi finalists.

Hat tip to Aaron Heath who created this puppy. He’s got a bunch of these handy spreadsheets on his website for Football, Cricket and Aussie rules as well.

Download the rugby world cup schedule (right click to save)

So Wallaby Rocky Elsom reckons his team would get sledged at the world cup if a booze ban is introduced.

I’m assuming them, that Rocky has not yet realised what his new Wallabies jersey looks like (below) or indeed what his own first name is. Cant help but laugh really.

The Wallabies 2007 jumper . . yep . . nothing to sledge about here ;)

Check out this handy application which adds each rugby world cup game into your Microsoft Outlook calendar. At the top of each day it just shows who is playing and what time (NZ time)

It’s very cool and very simple; I can see at a glance the games for each day.

Instructions:

1. Double click attachment
2. Click “open”
3. Click the box next to the title “Rugby World Cup”
4. Click “ok”

Just like Rico Gear’s stint with Tasman, this is quick and easy ;)

Download the file here

So Graham Henry dropped Piri Weepu.

Good on him I reckon. I don’t agree with the decision but it does send a super strong signal to me that Graham Henry will not avoid making tough calls as he endeavours to deliver us the holy grail. (aka the rugby world cup)

In 2003 John Mitchell saw no role for Christian Cullen on the ‘journey’ and that was a massive call - one that was based more on personalities than skill and form – and that was Mitchell’s mistake.

The dropping of Henry has nothing to do with Piri the person; it’s to do with a perceived lack of form, so at least the decision has some rational basis.

Again, I do not agree with his dropping, but I respect the fact he’s made the call and will live or die by it – well done Graham.